Mazatlán, the World and Photography from a different perspective............

Monday, July 18, 2011

Sunday Afternoon In Rio Presidio - continuing from Saturday.........

You want to see how the average Mexican working family in a small Sinaloan town relax, this is the place to go.

Rio Presidio flows under the bridge linking the north Pacific coast of Mexico with the south passing through Villa Union and on a hot humid Sunday afternoon literally hundreds of people make their way onto the river flood plain and park up their trucks (mostly trucks as these are working people, blue collar, farm people and factory workers.) and make a family day out of it under the shade of trees and sitting waist deep in a smooth flowing brown river with food and beer.

Some may say the river is crawling with potential diseases - cows crap and pee in it upstream and rubbish is probably dumped in it but to us sensitive souls who furiously clean and wipe our houses and bodies with strong chemicals that purport to kill 99 per cent of germs, we may not entertain the idea of putting our big toe into that water for fear of catching something.

But to the rest of the world who probably don't have the disposable income to purchase these luxury household and body cleaning products and who probably don't carry our paranoia for germs have no doubt developed healthy immune systems that could cope with the occasional passing bug.

True one or two people may get the occasional pathogenic, protozoal, parasitic or viral disease through a cut or by water entering the stomach but it seems these people's primary goal is to try to enjoy life the best they can and surrounding yourself with family and friends and dunking yourself in a cool river on a hot Sunday seems to be the way to go.

To get good pictures you have to become intimate with your subjects which means introducing yourself and maybe they might invite you to join them and their family. I received so many invitations here that I will be going back a few times to drink beer and chat while sitting in the river. They were genuinely interested in my life and very happy to have a camera stuck in their faces as it were.